Friday, June 22, 2007

Future Technology PD

Several of you asked for a continuation of the Class (New Digital Technologies and Web 2.0 tools).

I found this online survey that plugs into the blog zoho and has several other features. Please take the poll and comment.

Are you interested in a follow-up class?


Part II of the class would be in a hybrid format. We can outline the details with Karen over the summer.
The class would be ten hours a month beginning September/October for four months.
- five hours month face to face (possibly Wednesday's 3:30-8:30 pm)
- five hours online using the class blog to implement and report back on Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.
- Other options could include multimedia, moviemaker, teaching online (using school center and/or blog). Please comment with your suggestions.

I also added a feature to the website so when you go over a url it shows you a snapshot of the website.

Participate in the free K12 Online Conference K-12 Online Conference that could be incoprated into our class.
The 2007 conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. The conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.”

This class has inspired be to try new things our class blog!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Share your project and post your link!

Are you working on something interesting today?

Post a comment below with your link!

Thanks,

Teaching Tips: Differentiated Instruction

What is Differentiated Instruction?
This page offers a complete and outlined definition of differentiated instruction.

Layered Curriculum
This site for educators contains articles on how to implement a layered curriculum and other related topics.

Differentiated Instruction Links
This site contains links to resources such as articles on instructional theory, practical tips for the classroom, sample lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, and other documents.

About Differentiated Instruction
This article defines and explains differentiated instruction, including guidelines for implementing it in the classroom.

More information

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Did You Know; Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age

Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization and The Information Age

Create a Blog in Blogger, YouTube downloads and other tips

Using TeacherTube to create a blog using blogger.



More templates for blogger and installing workshop

Other Tips - Need to download a YouTube Video for you class? Is it blocked in your school?

Tip 1 - Watch the video video

Another way .... seems like alot more steps than the video approach.
Tip 2 - Here are the steps (note, this needs to be tested in class)
1. Find YouTube Video and Copy address
2. Go to Ripzor.Com, and paste the URL of the YouTube video into the box.
3. Click "Get Video"
4. Click the download link
5. Save the file to "a folder i.e. class videos" folder, and make sure to rename it.add ".flv" to end of name.
6. Open FLVConverter, and hit "Add file"
7. Use default settings and Click"Process"

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Technology Proposals

How would you like to use technology in your classroom/department/school?

Are you interested in submitting a proposal?

Post a comment to share with administration.

Lunenburg School Center - Online Tutorials

Need to learn School Center go to the online web tutorial and preview the flash tutorial or text tutorial.

Click on the StartPage Overview. You will be prompted to review the video or text tutorial.

Here is my class page on School Center

FAQ's to help you learn.

Monday, June 18, 2007

David Warlick talks about ... Of Course I think it Matters

Interesting observation about like long learning with teachers...

Of Course I think it Matters May 9, 2007 at 8:45 am · Filed under education

From David's Blog - There has been an astonishing and healthy conversation going on about the blog entry I wrote the other day about that NYTimes laptops piece. The entry is entitled, What’s good about the May 4 NY Times Article about Laptops in Schools. Last night, in his signature prickliness, Gary Stager (not his first comment on this blog post) lamented that we have had computers in classrooms for 25 years, and that some teachers still resist them indicates “…a conscious effort to be non-learners.”

I’ve claimed my own frustration at teachers who ask, “But who’s going to teach me how to do that?” Sadly, we are a generation who was taught how to be taught — not how to teach ourselves. It’s one of the many reasons why the experiences that our children have in the classroom must become much more self-directed, relevant, and rich. They/we need to learn to teach ourselves. Teachers shouldn’t need professional development. They should be saying, hey, I’m going to teach myself how to do that this weekend. It’s about life long learning. Not about a life of being taught.

Go to David's Blog to see comments

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Got Skype? Post a comment

Skype will allow you to:

website skype download

network with other instructional technology teachers
connect students with experts worldwide
connect students who are learning similar & related content
allow parents to see their students presenting
allow students who are absent a chance to participate
allow teams of teachers to meet virtually
allow administrators to connect with classrooms from their office
become the "teacher as facilitator"

More ...
Handout from conference
Download and register.

Post a comment and share your experience with the class!

Wiki's

Pbwiki in Education - take a tour

Wiki click here take a tour

Marc Prensky - Article Listen to the Natives?

What is RSS? Aggregators - Bloglines, GoogleReader, PageFlakes and more

RSS - Really Simple Syndication - content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

Oprah talking about RSS ... click on the link in the title or go to the blog

The articles starts ... "Now to explain RSS the Oprah way
Today, I’m going to explain how RSS can help you live your best life online. We all have busy lives with very little time. Web surfing is fun but can take hours going to visit every single website and blog you enjoy. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could just get all the headlines of the most current stories from all your favorite websites and blogs in one place? Well now you can, and it is called RSS feed.

The Oprah definition - The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place."

Bloglines is web-based personal news aggregator that can be used in place of a desktop client.

Google Reader, keeping up with your favorite websites is easy. It constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new information.

igoolge - go to goolge login and customize your hompepage. You can bring individual RSS feeds or add the Google Reader.
With Google Reader, keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy. It constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new information and updates!

Antother interesting personalized start page is Pageflakes. An interesting feature, you can share out a tab for other people to see. It also has a blog function. Looks like the next step up from igoogle.
Pageflakes- Pageflakes is your personalized start page with news readers, RSS feeds and various other features. Will Richardson talks about using PageFlakes as a student portal.

Getting Started Reading Blogs

Here are a few Blogs that I subscribe to

Weblogg-ed - Will Richardson collects ideas for Web logs in the classroom, asks questions to the teacher Web logging community, and reflects on his teaching.

2 Cents Worth -David Warlick, a 30 year educator,has been a classroom teacher, district administrator, and staff consultant with the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction. For the past ten years, Mr. Warlick has operated The Landmark Project, a consulting, and innovations firm in Raleigh, North Carolina. His web site, Landmarks for Schools, serves more than ten-million visits a month with some of the most popular teacher tools available on the Net. David is also the author of three books on instructional technology and 21st century literacy, and has spoken to audiences throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. David blogs at http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/.

Marc Prensky is relatively well known in educational technology circles for his 2001 article, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." (PDF) The vocabulary of referring to younger people as "the digital natives" for whom technology use comes more naturally and "the immigrants" to the digital landscape who comprise most of the adult population and teaching cadre in our schools and universities can be helpful in understanding the divides which often separate and define generations of learners.

Moving at the Speed of Creativity - Wesley Fryer

The Infinite Thinking Machine (ITM) is designed to help teachers and students thrive in the 21st century. Through an active blog, an Internet TV show, and other media resources, the ITM shares a "bazillion practical ideas" for turning the infinite universe of information into knowledge. We showcase examples of innovative instructional methods, talk with leading experts, and share real stories from the classroom to improve how we think, learn, teach, and live. And we try to have a little fun along the way.


A Difference - Darren Kuropatwa teaches math. A "difference" is one of the four fundamental operations. The slope of a line is calculated using a quotient of "differences" which, when we first study calculus, evolves into the "difference quotient" (AKA the derivative). Later we study "differential equations." The teachers in his department have decided to focus on using the teaching strategy Identifying Similarities and Differences. But more than all of this, the word "difference" suggests change. The breakneck evolution of technologies on the internet is changing they way we teach. It's hard to keep up.

Alan November and November Learning | Building Learning Communities November Learning promotes the effective use of information and communication technologies that support and enhance learning. Summer conference July 18-20th 2007 - Boston - Blogging and podcasts working together check out the gallery.


Speaking of History - Eric Langhorst, a junior high history teacher in Liberty, Mo., uses his podcast, Speaking of History, to hook students who dislike history but love their ...
speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/ Here is an article- After the Bell, Beyond the Walls: How middle schoolers use blogs, wikis, and podcasts to learn social studies by Eric Langhorst. I love reading about and learning new ways that teachers are currently using technology in a variety of disciplines to enrich their students’ learning.

The article discussed the way Eric uses podcosts and blogging technology to extend his teaching beyond the brick and mortar classroom. Eric creates “Studycasts” (podcasts) to help his students review for tests. He basically records himslef discussing, “major concepts that students needed to know for an upcoming unit test” (Langhorst, 74, Educational Leadership, May 2007). Students then download the content onto ipods, or he burns them a cd.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us